Boot sales

...I hate them...but I see no reason why others shouldnt enjoy the nightmare...anyway....our garage is full of crap...erm I mean quality previously loved items. The Mrs has been promising to take it all to the boot sale for over two years now. I am not allowed to take charge and sort it all out as she fears I will take a short cut to the tip...(and she is right).

How can I get her to actually do the deed and go to the dreaded bootsale so i can have enough space to work on my bike and do up my old mtb and have room for a new Bianchi and etc etc...

Likewise BTFB. The problem with boot sales is that if you're on your own and need a pee........this is the excuse offered by my missus for not having one and selling all the rubbish she has kept, well, for decades. So if I give you my number your missus can go with my missus and they can mind each other's stalls when there's a call of nature.

I was thinking yesterday, I wonder if I could divorce on the grounds of her unreasonable behaviour in keeping tonnes of unnecessary clothes/toot. It does my head in.

I went to a car boot sale on sunday. I came away with a pair of Grivel crampons, untouched, still in their Taunton Leisure box marked £61.90, and a Snugpak Softie 3 sleeping bag, used I should think twice maximum, and for these items I paid £7

If your wife is "attached" to all the previously loved items, I do not think she will want to get rid of it all in one go. Have you heard of "Freecycle".
In short, it is like e-bay, but no money changes hands and it is based over small areas to avoid too many miles for people to collect items. This is unlikely to be classed as advertising, as it is aimed at recycling etc.

We used it a lot when we had my late father in law house to empty.
Amongst other things, we found good homes for three very old-fashioned chairs, 200 plastic garden pots (went to someone starting up some greenhouses), various bath aids, 50 padded envelopes, a wheelbarrow with a punc*ure. We also gained some items we would like, including a French version of Collins "giant" dictionary, a scart socket and a display board. After some recent building work, we passed on five unwanted pallets to someone who wanted to build a new chicken house, a small quantity of hard core (rubble) - steady!

If you go to www.freecycle.org then United Kingdom, then your county, hopefully you will find one in a town near you. You can read some of the recent Offers and Wanteds and see if it might be helpful to rehome any useful items. You can set it up to "read only" so that you just get e-mails from people who would like your items. If you get rid of some of your "junk" that way, it might encourage your wife to gradually get rid of some more. The idea is that the person who would like the item has to collect it. Let me know if you have any queries on it, I think you will find it helpful, if only for the bigger items, too big to take in a car boot.

Likewise BTFB. The problem with boot sales is that if you're on your own and need a pee........this is the excuse offered by my missus for not having one and selling all the rubbish she has kept, well, for decades. So if I give you my number your missus can go with my missus and they can mind each other's stalls when there's a call of nature.

I was thinking yesterday, I wonder if I could divorce on the grounds of her unreasonable behaviour in keeping tonnes of unnecessary clothes/toot. It does my head in.

Realistic positive solutions invited (no, not a contract killer).

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Chris, it's funny, you can always tell someone's from Essex or East London entirely through the fact they say the word 'toot' - no-one else seems to use the word.

We've made some good cash over the years flogging off old rubbish at boot sales. We seldom come home with less than £100 and once we made £140. The trick is to be there when it opens because that's when the professionals come around. After the initial burst of activity there's a gap until the ordinary punters get out of bed and finish their Sunday fry-ups. We always come home absolutely amazed that people will pay cash for garbage; once an Indian lady came back to our table four times, when we asked her why she replied "you have such nice stuff"!

The real irritation is people who buy something then ask you if they can leave it with you to collect later, then they forget what they've bought and never return, leaving you with unsaleable rubbish. We always return home via the dump and throw the left-overs in a skip.

The worst we ever did was in Trafford Park, in a really miserable part of Manchester populated by scummy resentful people. I had two old scout knives to sell. A security bloke came along and informed me that it was against local bylaws to sell knives so I took them straight off the table. Five minutes later another security bloke came along wearing a jumper over his shirt and epaulettes and did his best to persuade me to sell him the knives, saying he and his wife were collectors. But he insisted too much and I smelled a rat. I refused to sell them and he flounced off. I realised later that he'd been trying to entrap me - I could just see myself up in front of the magistrates on Monday "You were told it was illegal to sell knives yet you still sold two to a SECURITY MAN?"

Chris, it's funny, you can always tell someone's from Essex or East London entirely through the fact they say the word 'toot' - no-one else seems to use the word.

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Sorry to be so regional, me old China. My mother used the word often. I can't say I would use it in everyday life at all. It just struck me as being the right word at the time (especially for the crap my wife keeps) and my mother's face came into view.